“Tanks are in certain instances vulnerable, no doubt about it, but trucks are even more vulnerable and soldiers without any protection are the most vulnerable,” Norman said. Norman said the war in Ukraine has shown the tank remains needed. The tank also has an artificial intelligence capability embedded in the system that enables “lethality, survivability, mobility and manned/unmanned teaming,” GDLS said. The AbramsX has a hybrid power pack that enables silent watch capability and “some silent mobility,” which means it can run certain systems on the vehicle without running loud engines. AbramsX is a technology demonstrator with reduced weight and the same range as the current tank with 50% less fuel consumption, the company told Defense News ahead of the show. General Dynamic Land Systems, which manufactures the Abrams tank, is bringing what it’s calling AbramsX to AUSA this year.
The service is finding opportunities to experiment, he added, taking a look at “a range of alternatives, putting soldiers in virtual prototypes and getting their feedback, not only on the physical platforms but also operationally, how would they fight systems that have different characteristics than what they have right now? … How would they fight formations differently if their tanks had different characteristics?” The Army is also considering “what are tanks most vulnerable to on the battlefield of today … and in the future,” he said.
“We are consistently looking at ways to drive down the main battle tank’s weight to increase our operational mobility and ensure we can present multiple dilemmas to the adversary by being unpredictable in where we can go and how we can get there,” he said. Weight is a major inhibitor of mobility, Norman said. His observations there reinforced the “necessity of having operational mobility, the ability to get your vehicles where they need to be on the battlefield,” he said.
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